my picture-a-day mini blogs

Camille came for Christmas and we got to do some of the things we'd already found that we loved in Oman: Kargeens restaurant (the lamb!), our favorite beach, the schwarma from Hawas down the street, black cardamom tea, taking a boat out to the Dimaniyat islands nature preserve and the Anantara. And we got to do many firsts together: a visit to the town of Nizwa, first time to visit the Grand Mosque, and the first time to the fish market. I probably laughed the hardest when Camille's boyfriend bought a dishdashah and local-style hat at the souk and then everyone started speaking Arabic to him! "I'm from California!" he would say, and then everyone would laugh, and they would continue speaking Arabic to him. California has the largest Arab population of any state in the U.S. so I guess being from California doesn't preclude speaking Arabic. We took the drive up to the Anantara Hotel (this time just for lunch and a swim) but Peter and I had considerable PTSD after our car had broken down the last time we went. We kept reliving the trauma: "this is where all the dashboard lit up," "there is where we parked when the engine started smoking" "this is where all those guys came out to help"--hopefully this second trip (that occurred without incident--yay!) helped us recover. Otherwise it's been sun-filled, swim-filled, somewhat shisha-filled days as we get use to Oman and 2018.